Old Quad

Old Quad is where Santa Clara began, and you can still feel it on a walk down Benton Street or Homestead Road. Mission Santa Clara de Asís was founded nearby in 1777, Santa Clara College (now Santa Clara University) opened on the mission site in 1851, and the town incorporated a year later. The street grid laid out in those early decades still shapes the neighborhood, which is a big part of why Old Quad feels so different from the postwar tracts that cover most of the city. Houses sit close to the sidewalk, front porches face the street, and neighbors actually see each other.

Historic Homes and What Comes With Them

For a lot of buyers the housing stock is the draw, and it’s also what makes buying or selling here more involved than a typical Santa Clara sale. You’ll find Italianate and Greek Revival homes from the 1870s and 1880s, Queen Anne cottages from the 1890s, and Craftsman bungalows, with modest mid-century homes and small multi-unit buildings mixed in between. Many of these properties are on the city’s historic resource inventory, so exterior changes can go through the Historical and Landmarks Commission, and some owners hold Mills Act preservation agreements that can lower property taxes considerably.

If you’re buying, you want to know a home’s status before you get attached to a remodel plan. If you’re selling, it’s a detail worth sorting out early so buyers don’t get surprised halfway through escrow. A Mills Act contract runs with the property and transfers to the new owner, so the buyer needs to understand both the tax savings and the maintenance obligations that come with it.

Everyday Life in the Neighborhood

Day to day, life here revolves around the university and Franklin Street. Santa Clara University brings the de Saisset Museum, the Mission gardens, games and lectures, and a steady energy to the area, along with the student rentals you’d expect near any campus. Franklin Square hosts a farmers market every Saturday morning, and El Camino Real, Westfield Valley Fair and Santana Row are all a few minutes by car. Just across the San Jose line is nearby Encanto, a newer community of small lot homes by the university. Like the rest of the city, Old Quad is served by Silicon Valley Power, Santa Clara’s city-owned utility, which is one of those perks residents tend to appreciate more every time they hear what their friends in other cities pay for electricity. Schools are part of Santa Clara Unified School District, which runs kindergarten through twelfth grade, and I confirm the assigned schools for each address.

Downtown Santa Clara Is Coming Back

The next chapter for the neighborhood is downtown. Santa Clara demolished its original eight block downtown during the urban renewal push of the 1960s, and residents spent years fighting to bring it back. On December 5, 2023 the City Council adopted a Downtown Precise Plan and form based zoning code covering about 25 acres bounded by Benton, Lafayette, Homestead and Madison, with a restored street grid, new public spaces and new housing along a pedestrian oriented Franklin Street.

Progress has been slower than many neighbors hoped. The city has been working on a community benefits program to add to the plan, with task force meetings that began in October 2025, so actual construction is still ahead. Whenever it does take shape, Old Quad sits right on its doorstep.

Is Old Quad a Good Fit for Downsizers?

It depends on the house. The streets are flat and the neighborhood is one of the most walkable in Santa Clara, with the Santa Clara Caltrain station on Railroad Avenue, the university and Franklin Street all close. The Santa Clara Senior Center on Fremont Street, which serves adults 50 and over, is in this part of town, and O’Connor Hospital and Kaiser Santa Clara are both a short drive. Many of the Victorian homes are two stories with steep interior stairs and raised front porches, but the Craftsman bungalows and mid-century houses are often single story, and those are the ones I steer most downsizing buyers toward. My guide to single-level homes explains what to look for.

Older homes also bring older systems, so I budget time for inspections on foundations, sewer laterals, wiring and plumbing. Most of the detached houses have no homeowners association, while the small condo and multi-unit buildings mixed into the neighborhood usually do. If you are moving here from a longtime home elsewhere in California, Proposition 19 may let you bring your property tax base with you, which is worth comparing against any Mills Act savings on a historic house.

The Old Quad Housing Market

Old Quad is small, so its numbers move with only a handful of sales. Redfin’s most recent neighborhood figures show a median sale price of about $1.61 million for the three months ending March 2026, up about 10 percent from a year earlier, with homes going pending in a median of 13 days, according to Redfin’s Old Quad market data. That lines up closely with the citywide median of about $1.64 million for the three months ending September 2026, though prices for individual historic homes depend heavily on condition, lot and restoration work.

Frequently Asked Questions About Old Quad

Thinking About Your Next Move in Old Quad

Many of the people I work with in Old Quad have owned their homes for thirty or forty years, and their questions are rarely just about price. They want to know whether a two-story Victorian still makes sense for the next decade, what to do with a historic home the kids don’t want to take on, and how things like Prop 19 or a Mills Act contract change the math on selling, staying or moving closer to family. My Santa Clara area guide covers the rest of the city, including nearby Sunny Brae. If that sounds like where you are, I’m happy to walk through your options with you, even if you’re only starting to think about a move.